Justice Wears a Skirt - Essay Example

? (Nature of Work) TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction ……………………………………………………….3 II. The Role of Solicitors and Barristers...………………….…..……..3 III. Statistics on Women Solicitors and Barristers ……………………..4 IV. Significant Roles of Women as Solicitors and Barristers…………..6 VI. Conclusion …………………………………………………………9 I. Introduction It is quite noticeable that at present, women have become an integral and permanent part of the legal profession. In the United States alone, they take up 24% of the total number of attorneys. This volume continues to grow especially with the fact that the current number of women law students today is 40% of total. Furthermore, it is forecasted that by 2010, 40% of the legal profession will be made up of women1,2. Despite these fact however, it is regrettable to note that some sectors in society remain reluctant in accepting the legitimacy of women as barristers and solicitors and their eventual appointment to judicial office. No less than the media is participatory in such discriminatory actions towards women. This is evident in many of the articles written about women in the legal profession such as “Justice Wears a Skirt” and that which talked about the law being “feminized”.3 This paper will be focusing on the women in law profession and their role as barristers and solicitors. It will make mention of several of the most famous of them and how they got to where they are. II. The Role of Solicitors and Barristers Solicitors refer to lawyers who have complied with the educational demands and other prerequisites of the Law Society and have worked for two years under the supervision of a practicing solicitor. They have restricted authorization to plead before a court but in general, do not. Solicitors act as professional middlepersons between clients and barristers. They spend majority of their time in the office to plan strategies for the case and to write comprehensive guidelines for the barristers to follow. Barristers, on the other hand, are the legal experts who actually appear in court, and present the case compliant with the guidelines provided by the solicitors. Unlike solicitors, they do not interact with the clients; rather, they function as highly-trained and well-experienced specialists in legal procedure and points of law. Unlike solicitors also, they have direct access to court. However, the restriction on the right of solicitors to appear before the court has been removed by the Court and Legal Services Act. Also, the clients are given more direct access to barristers who have complied with the Bar Council prerequisites and have informed the council that they plan on doing direct access work. III. Statistics on Women Solicitors and Barristers Women make up 24% of the lawyers of the country. This amount is almost twice higher since 1985, when the percentage was just 13%, and higher by eight times than in 1971, when the percentage was just 3%. The place of women in the legal profession continues to rise. Women comprise 44% of all law students. However, despite making up over 50% of the population, the present projections indicate that the percentage of women in the profession will never reach 50%. Women are instituting themselves as leaders in the legal profession. By 1997, women made up 32% of the ABA Board of Governors, 22% of the members of the American Bar Association House of Delegates, 20% of state civil judges, 19% of federal judges, 8% of deans of law school, 19% of law school professors, and 14% of law firm partners4. Since the early part of the 1970s, the portion of female law students has increased by over four times, from 9.4% in 1972/1973 to 44% in 1996/19975. In response to reports by members of the faculty and female law students in law schools regarding gender discrimination, a sequence of hearings were carried out in 1994 and 1995 by the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession for the purpose of exploring the topic. The results were alarming. It showed that in one law school, students referred to female members of the faculty as bitchy or inadequate, or tested them with repeated interruptions, and in another school, testimony showed that a faculty member habitually called female law students “sweetie” or “little girl”. In total, the Commission interviewed law students, faculty members, and deans fro, 58 law schools, whose testimonies demonstrated recurring concern regarding gender discrimination6. It is also an observable fact that despite making up 44% of managers and executives, only 5% of top executives are comprised of female lawyers. The “glass ceiling” refers to a level ahead of females and minorities are not able to progress in a workplace. The glass ceiling obstructs way in to top jobs in some workplaces while in other workplaces, entire job kinds may be regarded as inaccessible by females and minorities7. In workplaces in the United States, statistics suggest that a glass ceiling exists. In 1996, 44% of the employees in managerial, administrative, and executive occupations are comprised of women, but the women account for only less than 5% of the top executives. In Fortune 1500 companies, men make up 95% of senior managers, i.e., vice presidents and above8. As regards educational attainment, there still exist some inequalities in the percentage of male and female managers, when it comes to comparing men and women of equal education. The likelihood for female managers to have graduate and bachelor degrees was lower than for male managers. IV. Significant Roles of Women as Solicitors and Barristers The legal profession has been taken as one of those professions that are mainly dominated by men. In one remarkable case involving a woman being admitted to the bar, a justice, no less, explained that their reason for denying her petition is based on the civil law, which, like nature itself, has always been cognizant of the big variation in the destinies and spheres of man and women. He further explained that man should be the woman’s defender and protector, thus, the delicacy and timidity natural to women made them unfit for many civil life occupations, in this case clearly referring to the legal position9. This is just one example of the numerous discriminations, biases and prejudices against women in many parts of the society particularly the legal profession. Despite such discouragements however, the abovementioned statistics clearly shows that these women barristers and solicitors will not be stopped and is in fact moving very fast with their goals that it would not be a surprise when the time comes that women will dominate men in the same profession. One famous barrister turned Prime Minister of Britain, Margaret Thatcher, is one good example of the role of women in the legal system. She is the country’s first woman Prime Minister and one that showed magnificent power. She did it in a country where bias to women in the legal profession is pronounced. During the same year she was giving up her seat in the House of Commons to become Prime Minister, a group of women barristers made a mark in the legal history with their formation of the Association of Women Barristers. This group has become very cognizant of the plight of women lawyers and among others, they have noticed that a recent study showed that the number of women barrister qualifiers has already exceeded that of the men.10 The more significant roles of women barristers and solicitors in the legal history abound. While many of them found it difficult just with the practice alone, more so with the goal of most of them to attain justice positions. Those who managed to gain justiceships attained it only as a “token” position that was appointed to them on a part-time basis to just simply represent the gender. Belgian barrister Louis Frank, is very helpful in the plight of women barristers. He facilitated the admission of women to the within the legal profession in the European nations. This included the historical admission of Italy’s Lydia Poet, Belgium’s Marie Popelin and France’s Jeanne Chauvin. Frank was detrimental in their admission and was the author of the historical La Femme-Avocat, which is a documentation and analysis of women’s legal status, roles and efforts to get into the legal profession.11 For those who failed to meet the challenge of the profession and leave it for certain reasons such as family, they are not able to serve as an inspiration to the next generation. On the other hand, those role model barristers and solicitors who managed maintained their position in the industry served as great inspirational role models. In the United States, research showed that female judicial officers took different career paths from their male counterparts. In Canada, it is an old perception that when women comes to a workplace, she is expected to work extra hours and even devote more time to her job which she fails to due to motherhood roles. These biases on women barristers and solicitors however has started dissipating fast and the very women who managed to enter this male-dominated profession are the ones spearheading the endeavors that will ensure that more women lawyers continue contributing their capabilities and to refuse holding back on their positions. To add to these kind of challenges, both for the women and even the unbiased men, it is important that they ensure the future in which women, and even the stereotyped in the legal profession, are taken as a vital part of an essential and highly honorable profession that is tasked to serve the public. With the achievements of many women barristers and solicitors at present, it is quite clear that women are definitely in a position which only way is up. People have realized by now the uselessness of discrimination and biases and that gender issues should be stopped. V. Conclusion As shown by the preceding instances, women have already come a long way as far as the legal profession is concerned. From the difficult attempts made by women more than a century ago to gain entry as a solicitor, the story today is way too different. It is quite safe to say that the next hundred years will see women gaining an equitable position in all levels of the profession for which they have faithfully served to the utmost of their capabilities. As also included, their role in the legal system has become quite beneficial in the society in its entirety. As the number of women who join the legal industry increased and they take up roles of responsibility and power, the culture as well as the mentoring of younger women change. This can bring about faster changes in the society and the legal profession. After all, the power of women should not be under-estimated as clearly shown in the examples given in this paper as well as the history of women in the legal profession. Perhaps, the problem of gender discrimination may not totally disappear in the legal profession at present. However, it is apparent that it is already on the way there. References 7th Annual Janet Irwin Womne’s Dinner, (1999). Women in Law – The Past, The Present and The Future. Parliamentary Annex Alice Street Brisbane. American Bar Association (1996), Commission on Women in the Profession, Elusive Equality: The Experiences of Women in Legal Education. American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession, Women and the ABA: A History of Women's Involvement in the ABA, 1965-1989. American Bar Association Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar (1998), Approved Law Schools. Bradwell v. Illinois is at 83 U.S. 130 (1872). Bryant, D. (2007). In her Speech to Women Lawyers Achievement Awards, Melbourne. Curran, B. (1995). Women in the Law: A Look at the Numbers. American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession. Curran, B. and Carson, C. (1994). The Lawyer Statistical Report: The U.S. Legal Profession in the 1990s. American Bar Foundation. Knake, Renee Newman, "Leiper, Bar Codes: Women In the Legal Profession; Mossman, The First Women Lawyers: a Comparative Study of Gender, Law and the Legal Professions" (2009). Pace Law Review. Available in http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/lawrev/609. Accessed 29 March 2011. U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (1997), Employment and Earnings. U.S. Department of Labor, Women's Bureau, Facts on Working Women, Women in Management; A Women Employed Fact Sheet: The Glass Ceiling. Read More